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Tag Archives: Kabbalah

The Amazing Life of Israel’s First Rocket Scientist

Itzhak Bentov

Itzhak Emery Bentov (1923-1979) was born in Czechoslovakia. After most of his family, including both parents, were killed in the Holocaust, Bentov settled on a kibbutz in the Negev. He soon joined the nascent Israeli Science Corps. In 1948, the corps was absorbed into the IDF as its official military research arm (heil hamadah). Although having no formal background or degree in science, Bentov quickly demonstrated his genius. Among other things, he designed Israel’s very first rocket, which was used successfully in the War of Independence. This marked the birth of Israel’s now world-famous military research and weapons development program. Out of the heil hamadah would be born RAFAEL, the organization tasked with developing Israel’s state-of-the-art rocketry, including the Iron Dome and the new David’s Sling missile system. Bentov moved to the US in 1954 and opened up his own workshop. There, he came up with dozens of new inventions, his most famous being the life-saving steerable heart catheter. Teaming up with a businessman, he founded Medi-Tech, which grew quickly and eventually became Boston Scientific, now a multi-billion dollar company with 29,000 employees worldwide. With dozens of patents for vital medical technologies under his belt, Bentov is considered a pioneer of the biomedical engineering industry. Full of great ideas, he was known as “Invention-a-Minute Ben”. At the same time, Bentov was a very spiritual person and was particularly drawn to the exploration of consciousness. After years of meditation and study, in 1977 he published his bestselling book, Stalking the Wild Pendulum: On the Mechanics of Consciousness. Many credit this book with launching the field of consciousness studies. Intriguingly, Bentov invented a seismograph which could record the vibrations of the aorta (the main artery coming out of the heart). He demonstrated that when a person meditates, the aorta’s vibrations tune to the beat of the heart, and synchronize with the brain’s alpha waves, and the Earth’s own magnetic pulsations. Bentov became a leading researcher on paranormal and supernatural phenomena, working alongside the renowned Dr. Andrija Puharich and Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell (who founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences to study the paranormal after returning from the moon and reporting a supernatural experience). In his second prized book, A Brief Tour of Higher Consciousness, Bentov synthesized the findings of modern physics and neurology with ancient mystical and Kabbalistic teachings. Bentov was famous for his vast array of knowledge, his ability to speak 11 languages, as well as his sense of humour. Sadly, he died in a plane crash at the young age of 56. His daughter recently published a book about his incredible life, called The Book of Telling: Tracing the Secrets of My Father’s Lives.

Two Inspiring Sages

Tomb of Rabbi Yosef Saragossi in Ein Zeitim, Israel

Yosef Saragossi (1460-1507) was born to a religious Sephardic family, either in Saragossa, Spain, or in Syracuse, Sicily. He became a respected rabbi at a young age. Around the time of the Spanish Expulsion of 1492, Rav Saragossi settled in Tzfat. He discovered a tiny community of just 300 poorly-educated Jews, with not a single full-time rabbi among them. Rav Saragossi revived the three synagogues in the city and founded new schools, reinvigorating Jewish life. His yeshiva soon attracted students from far and wide. Within a century, Tzfat was a major centre of Jewish learning, and the capital of Jewish mysticism. There, Rabbi Yosef Karo would produce the Shulchan Arukh, still the central code of Jewish law, and there the Arizal (Rabbi Isaac Luria) revealed his Kabbalistic system, forever revolutionizing Judaism. Rav Saragossi was beloved not only by Tzfat’s Jews, but by its Muslim residents, too. In fact, the Muslim governor at the time paid two-thirds of Rav Yosef’s salary just to keep him from leaving. Rav Saragossi’s tomb remains an important pilgrimage site, and is known as a place of miracles. Because of one such miracle involving 500 white hens, he has been called Tzadik haLavan, “the White Saint”.

One of Rav Saragossi’s foremost students was David ben Shlomo ibn Abi Zimra (c. 1479-1589). He, too, was born in Spain, and was exiled around the time of his bar mitzvah. His family settled in Tzfat, and the young David studied in Rav Saragossi’s yeshiva. Becoming a renowned rabbi of his own (later known by his initials, Radbaz, as is common among Jewish sages), he moved to Egypt and became a member of its beit din, the Jewish court. He would soon be appointed Hakham Bashi, Egypt’s chief rabbi. Meanwhile, the Radbaz made some good investments, and became exceedingly wealthy. He built a new yeshiva in Cairo, and it was there that a young Isaac Luria, the Arizal, would get his start. After serving as Chief Rabbi for nearly forty years, writing a number of important books, and penning over 3000 responsa, the Radbaz retired at age 90. He left most of his wealth for the poor, then returned to the Holy Land. Although he wished to settle in Jerusalem, the Ottomans made it difficult for Jews to live there, so the Radbaz returned to Tzfat. He was immediately placed on the highest beit din, alongside Rav Yosef Karo. The Radbaz merited to live many more years, inspiring a new generation of rabbis, including the great Rabbi Chaim Vital. He was over 100 years old when he passed away.